Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Time for another round of advertising talk

Happy midsummer everyone. I'm looking at some redesign stuff that includes adding some *gasp* advertising to the site. I searched the archives here but the most recent discussions about ads are over 8 months old, which is darned near neolithic in Internet years.


I signed up for adsense, am going to sign up for blogher (which I'd rather use) and realize I am relatively clueless on the topic.

Who is using an ad network/service they love or hate?
Suggestions for someone just starting with ads?

Thanks!

This Post was written by kitchenMage from kitchenMage

5 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

I added Blogher to my site a few weeks ago, and it's been great. They are signing up more and more food blogs, which means they will be able to attract more ads specifically targeted to our market. I've asked some of my readers whether they find the ads intrusive, and they tell me they do not. So far, so good!

Anonymous said...

I've experimented with AdBrite and currently use a mix of Google Adsense and BlogAds.

I'm reasonably happy with both.

Blogads is not flexible enough as I have a "problem". I have three advertisers who would like to be on my site all the time with more flexibility than Blogads ordering system allows. (You can only book by the week/month/quarter.) 70% of my blogads income is from these three advertisers, so I figured it was worth my while to find a solution to keep them happy.

If you're just starting out though, I definitely recommend them. They have a lot of food blogs in their network and I did get some bookings that way.

At the moment I'm installing something called OpenAds, which is a self-hosting solution. (The program is free but devilish to set up.) I'll try to post something about it after I've had some time to try it out.

I'm trying not to junk up my site with too much advertising but of course would like the blog to actually pay more more than my expenses, so it's a balancing act.

I'm not fond of affiliate links/ads since I'm blogging about products and I think that's too ethically murky. But I think that option works well for blogs that are more topic oriented.

meathenge said...

After over 4 years, still no ads. I'll review commercial products, but I don't want any of my 17 readers to have to deal with an advertisement. I'll leave that to the pr0n, gaming and commercial sites.

Biggles

Anonymous said...

Biggles: LOL 17 readers :-) I totally hear that. :-)

If I do ads I usually dislike what I see almost immediately.

I want purty ads that are well designed, fantastically witty, ads that add to the astounding beauty of my blog (ROFL, not), ads that do not tell you to sign up for the army or get a variable loan or mortgage.

I want ads for sleek, super high speed kitchen implements, jet engine fired ovens, induction toasters, foods imported from Mars.

These things are not too much to ask, really.

Amy Sherman said...

Life is filled with too much advertising. I like taking a vacation when I go blogging.